


Fires Burn and Kettles Sing

by kaeorin



Series: Loki's Lullabies [162]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Autumn, Avenger Loki (Marvel), Comfort, Comfortember 2020, Couch Cuddles, Cuddling & Snuggling, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Hot Chocolate, M/M, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:40:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27789868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaeorin/pseuds/kaeorin
Summary: November was made for cozy afternoons and steaming hot chocolate. And cuddling here, with him.
Relationships: Loki (Marvel)/Reader
Series: Loki's Lullabies [162]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1678240
Comments: 11
Kudos: 123





	Fires Burn and Kettles Sing

November was made for days like today. You’d always thought so. Even before all this, you’d always taken a certain pleasure in spending a cool autumn day inside. Sunlight would filter in through the windows, warm on your skin, and it always made you feel just a little bit extra grateful that you were inside, because you knew that, outside, things weren’t quite as cozy. No matter how lovely and golden the sunlight shone, you knew that, by November, it was starting to become sharp and biting out there. For as long as you could remember, you were happy to content yourself in your home in the late fall and look out the window at a world tucked safely behind the glass. 

Every now and then, you could hear a gust of wind tear through the city streets. Up here, you didn’t often catch the drifts of traffic, but the wind was a frequent companion. Today, it made you shiver a bit and pull your hood up over your head. You turned away from the window to take in a sight that was far more beautiful than any crisp autumn day. Loki. He was there on your couch in your tiny city apartment, and he looked...comfortable.

He must have felt your eyes on him, because soon enough, he looked up from his book and smiled at you. You loved his smile. It was warmer than anyone could have guessed it’d be, especially when he looked at you. He’d pulled his hair back into a low bun to keep it out of his face, and the sight of it stirred something somewhere deep inside you. It also made you a little nervous—how long would it be before he was asking you to trim his hair again?—but, for now, with the golden sunlight all around you, you allowed yourself to push that to the side and focus on Loki.

You loved seeing him like this. He had the air of one impeccably-dressed, but today he wore clothing that looked comfortable. He often did, here. There was no one else to see him but you, and lord knows you’d seen him in much less than pyjamas. That thought, and all the associated memories, made your cheeks burn a bit, and made you lower your gaze.

“Come and join me,” he said in a low voice that was rich and warm. He lifted one arm in invitation and tilted his head just slightly to one side. But you hesitated. When he narrowed his eyes at you, confusion clear in his features, you held up a finger and smiled.

“Just a minute. I’ll be right back.”

November was also made for hot chocolate, after all, and through the course of your stay here, you had amassed quite the collection. You slipped into the kitchen and measured some milk into a pot on the stove. Loki had never mentioned caring about hot chocolate, but it might be nice to surprise him. Although it seemed like you could feel his impatience pressing at your back as you stood there stirring, you took your time. It wasn’t very long at all before you were joining him once again in the living room, this time carrying two large mugs of hot chocolate. He just watched you, nonplussed, as you approached him and held out one of the mugs.

“You made me wait for—that’s not coffee.” He took a careful sniff of the steam rising out of his cup.  
He was acting as though he’d never had hot chocolate before. Gently, so as not to cause him to spill, you situated yourself beside him on the couch and ventured the tiniest sip from your own mug. It was still too hot to enjoy properly, but the sweetness and richness of the too-hot sip filled your senses and made you smile. 

“It’s really hot; don’t burn yourself. But it’s good! Haven’t you heard of hot chocolate?”

“I’ve heard of it.” He didn’t sound skeptical, exactly, but perhaps thoughtful. He brought the mug to his lips and met your gaze over the rim. You tried not to stare, but you couldn’t suppress your smile as you watched him drink. His eyes widened in surprise. “Oh!”

“It’s nice, right?” As you often did, you practically curled yourself around your hot mug. It wasn’t terribly cold here in your apartment, but hot chocolate just had a way of making your whole body feel warmer.

“I thought—” He cut himself off, and went back for another sip. “This is not what I thought it was.” 

Some tiny part of you wanted to laugh. That was how you always felt any time Loki let on that you’d found a new way to surprise him. It was hard to believe that a prince from another world could ever be taken aback by anything Earthly and mundane, but...he was. Not a lot, necessarily, but...sometimes.

“There’s lots of different kinds of hot chocolate,” you ventured. You kept your eyes fixed on the surface of your own beverage, but you could feel the way he looked at you—bright, interested. It made you feel especially warm in a way that was wholly unrelated to the mug in your hands. “Dark chocolate. White chocolate. Spicy chocolate. It’s a crazy world out there.”

“I may find something to redeem Midgard yet,” he murmured thoughtfully into the surface of his own mug. You laughed and elbowed him in the side—but gently. He echoed your laugh, and the rich sound of it, rumbling in his chest, made you want to shiver. Instead, you tucked yourself a little more securely against him and smiled when he shifted so he could wrap his arm around your shoulders. You had never felt the way he made you feel. 

You slipped your free hand just beneath the bottom of his shirt, and wriggled a bit until you found the skin of his belly. He let you. This part of him just seemed so vulnerable and in need of protection, but he always let you touch it without even flinching. You sipped your hot chocolate slowly, quietly, even as you drew your fingers along his skin and touched the fine hair just beneath his navel. He kissed the top of your head and murmured something under his breath. The specific words were lost on you, but the love in his voice was unmistakable. “I love your tummy,” you said in a hushed voice. You meant, of course, _I love you, all of you, every part of your body and every last thing in your mind_ , but something told you that he’d understand that. 

He tightened his arm around you even as he began to flex the muscles in his abdomen. He was strong, of course, mind-bending strong, heart-stopping strong, beyond his outward appearance. You giggled to yourself and traced his abs, his obliques, and then perhaps let some of the weight fade out of your touch in hopes of tickling him. 

Sure enough, he let out a quick, sharp burst of air and then brought his mug down to rest against the back of your hand. What choice did you have, then, but to still your movements rather than to spill his hot chocolate? 

“Opportunistic little wretch.” But you could hear the smile gracing his lips. He let his mug sit there on your hand for several more moments before finally lifting it to his mouth again. You smiled to yourself as you listened to the sound of him drinking. You made that for him, and he was enjoying it. “That’ll keep you alive, my precious heart. Never stop looking for an opponent’s weaknesses, and then dig in deep with all the rage and spite you can muster.”

“You’re not my opponent,” you said. You sort of understood where he was coming from—he’d brought it up in the past, how sometimes he had nightmares where he watched you get hurt—but you still didn’t want that to go uncorrected. “I’ll protect your weaknesses. I love them.”

“I know that. Believe me, I know that.” Something new in his touch made you lift your head, finally, and when you did, you met his eyes. His face was so serious: brows heavy, jaw tight, even as something sparkled behind his eyes. You raised your hand from his stomach to his face so you could caress his cheekbone. When he closed his eyes and leaned into your touch, you pressed even closer so you could kiss his other cheek. He stayed still like that for a long time, seeming to relish in your touch, before he cracked one eye and smirked at you before lifting his mug once again. You laughed and pulled just far enough away to give him space to drink, then took a sip as well. 

There was not a doubt in your mind about how much he loved you. How much he wanted you. On a different day, maybe a day where you weren’t holding a mug of hot chocolate and feeling him along every inch of your body, your mind might have spiraled off into anger about all that he’d faced in his life up until this moment. He just deserved so much _more_ than he’d gotten. He’d come to you...not broken, necessarily, but...damaged. He was so cold and tried so hard to keep himself on the outside, but he hadn’t been able to hide the longing you saw in his eyes. He pressed a soft, chocolate-scented kiss to your temple, and it was enough to distract you from that tempting pull of anger. 

“You—” As was so often the case, you started speaking before you could really think about it. He tended to have that effect on you, perhaps because it was so easy to be certain of his affections for you. You chewed the inside of your lip thoughtfully, desperate to figure out how to put all of this into words now that you’d started. “God. Loki, you...it’s like you’re everything that’s _good_ about the world. Just being with you is enough to make me feel good and secure and safe. You know? And when I look at you, you’re like this perfect otherworldly figure and I can’t believe you’re here and I can look at you. And you let me look. And you let me touch you.”

He laughed again, but far more quietly this time. “I rather like it when you touch me, dear one, don’t you know that?”

Your face was warm, butt even that wasn’t uncommon anymore. Something about Loki’s presence had always seemed to put you off-balance, but only ever in the best ways. You smiled and then tilted your head to rest it against his shoulder. “I’m just really glad you’re here. The apartment here. The planet here.” Over and over again, you had lain awake in bed and you’d come to the decision that you’d happily trade away every last scrap of peace and love that he made you feel if it would make his past less horrific, but you couldn’t. So instead you would let yourself appreciate times like these.

“Hmm, me too.” He trailed his fingertips along your shoulder. Even through your shirt, he gave you goosebumps. “ _You’re_ here. And hot chocolate is here.” With that, he moved his hand to dig his fingers into your ribcage, forcing you to squirm away from him. Between your laughter, you struggled to catch hold of his hand to try to make it go still against you, but he was incessant. He kept tickling you until you’d more or less curled yourself into the fetal position on the cushion beside him, and then he rose to his feet. He gave you a moment or two to catch your breath, and then leaned down to catch your lips with his. “I’ll stop this torture if you show me where you keep this magical elixir.”

“But if I tell you that, you won’t have any more reasons to keep me around!” You didn’t truly think things like that anymore, but Loki must have heard the tiniest little waver of worry in your voice, because he helped you to your feet and pressed one finger beneath your chin to make you to look up at him. But he didn’t speak right away. He just...looked at you. It felt like he was studying your face, taking in everything about you. The sight of him still took your breath away. When you couldn’t stand it any longer, you did your best to break the tension with a smile.

He shook his head only slightly and leaned in to kiss your forehead. “I will _always_ have a reason to keep you around. You are the only reason I need.”

Heat flooded your body at that—not the first time, and certainly not the last. You might have looked away, but he held a steady pressure there beneath your chin that more or less forced you to maintain eye contact. His gaze was unwavering, though the corners of his mouth did twitch a bit, threatening to return your smile.

“I love you.” The words weren’t enough. They weren’t nearly enough. But maybe some combination of the words and your eye contact could start to approach “enough”. “Let’s go get you more hot chocolate, yeah?”

When he surged forward again and slanted his lips across yours, you were pretty sure that it wasn’t because of the promise of hot chocolate.


End file.
